UK car production more than halved over last year in March as UK plants cut back or temporarily stopped production in order to continue to wind down excess stock.
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The SMMT said that UK car production in March was 61,829 units, 51.3% down on March last year. In the first quarter, car production reached 183,010 units, 56.6% off last year’s pace.
First quarter commercial vehicle production in Britain was down by 63% to 22,295 vehicles.
The SMMT said it hopes that the scrappage incentive announced this week will stimulate the car market.
“The figures show that urgent action is necessary to kick-start demand in the motor industry and the introduction of a UK scrappage incentive scheme is an important first step,” said SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt.
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By GlobalData“Efforts to restore confidence and improve access to finance, particularly for companies in the supply chain, are key to sustaining our industrial capability. The motor industry has an essential role in the UK’s economic future, but it will be some months before we see any significant increase in output.”
Analysts have predicted that car production in Europe will continue to decline sharply in the first half of this year as stocks are reduced in line with much lower market demand.
However, some stabilisation has been predicted for the third quarter with the possibility of modest improvement to production levels thereafter.
